Our Stars Still Shine (eBook)

Pet Memoirs of Love, Grief, and Hope

Rheanna Rasico (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2022 | 1. Auflage
226 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-6678-7767-9 (ISBN)

Infos

Society often questions and ridicules the pace and depth at which we grieve a loss, but especially the loss of a pet. The same pointed questions and hollow phrases are repeated over again, which ultimately create more pain and social withdrawal as we fall short of their expectations. But there are others who understand that losing a pet is one of the most devastating experiences while the process of mourning has no timeframe. The first step to healing is understanding grief is unique, personal, and necessary. Through emotional validation and shared insight of others who've experienced similar circumstances, there is a community of compassion. Grief may not have a roadmap, but there is hope through the trauma and pain. Our Stars Still Shine is a collection of heartfelt memoirs from 22 different authors, written in their own words. From across the world, their stories connect them through shared experiences of deep love, pain, and finding life after loss. Read their stories as they recount some of the happiest and most painful moments of being a pet parent.

Textauszug

Zoey, The Love of a Lifetime

By Andrea Cosmano - Forever and Always Zoey’s Mom

Zoey. Her name means life. Little did I know at the time, how appropriate that name would be for her.

My mom and I had a holiday tradition. Every Christmas, even after I moved out and got married, she would buy me a dog calendar. It was in that calendar I first discovered Bernese mountain dogs. I was mesmerized by their beauty and striking markings, their loyalty, and the love they had for their person. It was at that point, that I knew this would be my next dog. After doing all the research about their life expectancy, health, temperament, and care, I began the search for a reputable breeder. After numerous inquiries and just about giving up, I decided to make one last phone call. I sat in the grocery store parking lot and dialed the number, expecting to hear the same response – no, we don’t have any left. The phone rang three times before a lady answered.

“Hello?”

“Hi. I’m calling to inquire about Bernese puppies. Do you have any available?”

The lady on the other end stated she had one left. She described her as a sweet, loving, and confident little girl, but absolutely beautiful. I gave her my email address and she said she would send pictures. I saw my first picture of Zoey on September 28th, 2009, and I knew I was in love. In those first pictures, the sunlight was shining all around her head and it appeared as if she had a halo. She was gorgeous and I knew she was my girl.

I picked her up on October 3rd, 2009. I was so excited. I didn’t even sleep that night. I was out of the house and on the road by 6:00 a.m. My first Bernese mountain dog. I waited a very long time and I was finally going to have my very own. The first time I saw her she was sleeping peacefully with her little head tilted sideways between her paws. She was the last one left from her litter. Elaine, the breeder, picked her up and put her in my arms. Zoey was still groggy from sleeping and just looked at me with her sweet, little eyes. I sat down in a chair and she went back to sleep in my lap. She was the cutest thing I had ever seen. She was so fluffy and furry, she looked like a little bear cub. She was all black with some white on her chest, paws, and the tip of her tail. She had a white stripe down her face and two brown spots above her eyes. She had the biggest brown eyes and the longest eyelashes. Her little nose was all black and her little ears were so floppy. She was as soft as cotton and I couldn’t wait to get her home. She was just perfect.

I placed her in a crate in the back of my SUV and we began the three-and-a-half-hour drive home. It wasn’t long after we left that she began to cry. I started talking to her in a very soft, motherly voice, but that didn’t seem to help. As we traveled down the road, I began to smell a terrible odor and realized she had gone to the bathroom in the crate and was trying to get away from it. I pulled over on an exit and immediately removed her from the crate. She didn’t have anything on her and was so happy to be out of the crate. I had some paper towels and cleaned it as best I could while still trying to keep her in the back of the car. At that point, I realized she would travel better by being closer to me, so I took some blankets I had brought along and put them with her in the front passenger seat. For a while, she was content and slept curled up in the blankets, but when she woke up an hour into the drive, she kept trying to crawl into my lap. After trying to drive and keep her in the seat, I finally gave up and she crawled in my lap, curled up and slept there the rest of the way home. My heart melted. It was at that point she had begun to wrap herself around my heart. Little did I realize, that was only the beginning.

We arrived at home around 2:00 p.m. By that time, she was ready to explore her new surroundings. I carried her from the car to the backyard and she met her Siberian Husky sisters and her dad for the first time. Sydney and Kalin were not quite sure about this little bundle of joy. They did the initial sniffing but ended up running from her as she chased them around. After a while, Zoey tired of that game and came and laid down in the grass by me. She put her perfect, adorable, little-black head on my leg and looked up at me with the most adoring, loving eyes; the little brown spots above her eyes moving independently with such expression. It was as if she was looking deep into my soul and at that moment I knew she was different, special. We had already developed a bond that I had never experienced before, something so unique and rare. I knew this precious little being would change my world, be my world, and it would never be the same again. I knew in that short period of time, she had become a part of my heart and I would do anything to make her life as perfect as it could be for as long as she was with me. It was then I promised her I would take care of her every need and I would never let her suffer. She gave me her heart and I gave her mine. From that moment, she was my Zoey, my princess, my perfect little girl.

I spent every moment of every day and night thereafter, being with her and training her. Within a day, she learned to push her Kong around on the kitchen floor so her food would fall out. When she wasn’t pushing her Kong around, she was with me on my lap in the kitchen. If she wasn’t on my lap, she was lying next to me as close as she could get – there wasn’t even an inch between us. Zoey was always a very gentle girl. Even during the puppy stage when she would bite, it was never hard. She would put her mouth on my hand or fingers, but never bite down. During all this time, I quickly learned how very smart Zoey truly was. I only had to show her how to do something about three or four times and she had it down. She mastered all the basic commands quickly, so I began to teach her commands by hand signals. Once again, she picked it up quickly. By Thanksgiving of 2009, she was sleeping with us in our bed. She had to be in between us, on her back, with her four paws up in the air. But more importantly, she had to be touching me. If I moved, she would move so she could continue touching me. She was my special girl.

Christmas of 2009, Zoey went with us to my parent’s house for the day. She was five months old and my family could not believe how well-behaved she was. I, of course, took all the credit, but really it was all Zoey. She was so eager to learn and please me. It was about that time I realized how connected we had become. It was as if she was reading my mind and knew what I wanted her to do without even speaking words. She would look at me and just know how I wanted her to act. She was truly incredible.

Zoey had a wonderful life. She was a princess and that is how she was treated. She had a bright pink collar with a pink name tag outlined in rhinestones. She would even lay down with her front paws crossed just like a princess. She was the definition of spoiled. She didn’t like to do most of the normal things dogs liked to do. She didn’t play fetch or play with her dog toys. She didn’t even like to go outside when it was raining or when the grass was wet as she didn’t like to get her paws wet. She just loved to be with her mom and dad. Whether it was inside or outside, we always had to be in her sight, she always had to keep an eye on us.

Every night before falling asleep, her dad would give her a body massage. He would massage her legs, shoulders, paws, and her head. She would make snorty pig noises so we knew she was in heaven. Her favorite “treats” were strawberries and Brussels sprouts. Any time she heard the knife on the cutting block, she would come running and sit in the kitchen, patiently waiting for her treat. Whether it was broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers, green peppers, watermelon, or berries of any kind, she always knew some would be saved for her.

No matter where I was or what I was doing, I was always thinking about Zoey. I didn’t want to be away from her for long because I didn’t want her to miss me or think I wouldn’t come back.

Zoey’s favorite time of the year was, of course, winter. She would get so excited when it would snow. She would go outside and begin turning around in circles. She would stick her face deep in the snow drifts and bite at the snow that had fallen on the ground. When she would remove her head from the snow, it would be covered and her face would be all white. She would just lie on the deck with the snow falling all around and look out over her kingdom. There would be times when her black fur would be completely white from the snow falling on top of her. She absolutely loved it! She was so well insulated, but the snow would not melt and there would be perfect snowflakes still intact on her fur. She was always so happy in the snow, tail wagging, so alert, so beautiful, and so majestic.

But Zoey just loved to be outside. She loved to chase the squirrels on the fence and the ones that had somehow gotten past her to the bird feeder. She would run off the deck into the yard barking at them to move along. She was able to see everything from her deck and nothing would get past her. There were times a bunny would end up in our yard and have babies. All I had to do was tell Zoey once to leave them alone and she would never go back by the nest. As I said, she was...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 23.12.2022
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• ISBN-10: 1-6678-7767-4 / 1667877674
• ISBN-13: 978-1-6678-7767-9 / 9781667877679